Is there a link between high blood sugar and dementia?

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We know diabetes can lead to all sorts of serious health problems, including heart disease, nerve damage, kidney failure and blindness.

According to the U.C. Berkeley Wellness Letter, type 2 diabetes has been linked with cognitive decline and dementia, especially when the disease is not treated adequately.

Dr. John Swatzberg, head of the editorial board at the Wellness Letter, says there's a reason why these two diseases may be linked.

"Diabetes has a negative effect on our blood vessels, so it may have to do with the circulation to our brain in people with diabetes," Swartzberg said.

Now, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests those with elevated blood sugar levels, not diabetes but a condition called prediabetes, are 30 percent more likely to develop dementia.

"The study doesn't prove that an elevated blood sugar puts you at increased risk for dementia, but it raises this concern. So, it's just another reason to get that blood sugar under control," Swartzberg noted.

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